Two months after taking some shots at former Capitals teammates such as Alexander Semin and others, Panthers forward Matt Bradley told the Sun Sentinel exclusively today that he was sorry and wanted to apologize. The Panthers play the undefeated Capitals in D.C. on Tuesday.

Basically, Bradley said that Semin, “just doesn’t care” enough about winning and doesn’t, “show up,” in the playoffs. He also said that superstar Alexander Ovechkin needed some, “growing up to as far as taking care of himself.”

“I wish I could take it back. I apologize for saying it. He’s a great player. It’s one of those things you wish you could take back, but you can’t, so all I could do is apologize and move forward,” Bradley said Monday after morning skate at the St. Pete Times Forum, where the Panthers will play the Lightning tonight.

“He’s one of the stars in this league. I had no business saying that.”

Bradley hasn’t had any contact with Semin since his controversial radio interview.

“It wasn’t my place to say anything. He’s one of the top players in the league,” he added.

Bradley said if he sees Semin Tuesday he would apologize in person.

“If I see him I’ll apologize,” Bradley said.

Bradley, who played for the Capitals from 2005-06 to 2010-11, said he has nothing but good feelings for the franchise, which has won the last four Southeast Division titles but has been unable to make it as far as the conference finals during the run.

“I love my years in Washington, it’s a great team, a great organization. My wife and I have a lot of fond memories of the area. We had our son, Henry, there [in Virginia suburbs],” he said. “I had a great six years there. All the guys I played with were great, the coaches were great.”

During an Aug. 17 radio interview (Ottawa’s Team 1200) Bradley blamed much of the Capitals repeated postseason collapses, including last season’s second-round ouster to the Lightning, for a ”nonchalant,” dressing room, led by Semin.

Here’s some of his comments:

“We had some guys who didn’t show up in the playoffs, and I’ll leave them unnamed. I think our locker room was maybe a little bit too nonchalant, and guys weren’t disciplined the way they should have been. Those two things are big things. … I’d say that’s about it, because we had a lot of guys that played hard and played well, and it seemed that sometimes the guys that weren’t playing well were the ones getting the [majority] of the ice time. In the playoffs I don’t think it matters who you are; it’s who’s playing well for you at the time, and that’s not always what happened with our team. It wasn’t the guys who were playing well at the time, it was the guys who were our best players for the most part who were playing no matter what.”

I don’t mind saying Alexander Semin’s name, because he’s one guy who has so much talent, he could easily be the best player in the league, and just for whatever reason, just doesn’t care.

“When you’ve got a guy like that, you need him to be your best player, or one of your best players, and when he doesn’t show up, you almost get the sense that he wants to be back in Russia. That’s tough to win when you’ve got a guy like that who’s supposed to be your best player not being your best player, or one of your best players.”

“Yeah, and I’m not talking about myself at all here. I mean, there were a lot of guys who played well that didn’t probably play as much as they needed to, but I love Bruce and Bruce is a great coach and he was in a very tough position there, because in Washington our top guys are definitely the stars and the guys that people want to see on the ice, so I totally understand. That just doesn’t happen on our team, it happens on a lot of teams.

“When you’re paying your top guys a lot of money and those guys carry you through the whole season, and if one of them isn’t going, it’s very hard not to play them, and I understand that that’s tough. But I think in the end, if you want to win, sometimes you have to sit some of those guys down and maybe send a message and try to get them going.”

He was asked if Ovechkin was all in for winning the Cup or does he have maturing to do?

“I never worry about Ovi. He’s an all-in guy. He’s young, he makes his mistakes, the same as anyone would. I often try to put myself in his position. And you’ve got to remember, he’s 25 years old, he’s got a guaranteed $120 million, he’s on top of the world, and he still for the most part makes the right decisions. I don’t worry about him, I don’t worry about most of the guys on that team. That’s why I think in the end they’ll do well.

“Ovi has some growing up to do as far as taking care of himself and things like that, but as far as his want to win, he really does just want to win the games, and he doesn’t care if he scores or not. That isn’t an act. He’s a great guy, great player. I’d never say anything bad about him.”

Caps fan here as well…..doesn’t matter if it is true or not, Bradley should not have said it. Some things like locker room issues should be team issues. Personally I hope the Alex’s make him pay for his comments. No I don’t mean injure him I mean on the scoreboard.
I think Mr. Bradley will regret the day he made the comments in the long run. Because it would really suprise me if it doesn’t make the Caps play that much harder against Florida this season. Not to mention it is Vokoun’s first time facing his old mates too.

Capitals fan and former hockey player here: Anyone who thinks that Bradley was right doesn’t know what it means to play hockey or what it’s like to be under the pressure that players like Semin and Ovechkin are under. If you blame the playoff collapse on individual players, you’re just following the media for a scape goat.

Mr. Bradley was loved in Washington and he spit on his former team with his unprofessional behavior. Good luck to him in his future, no matter how insignificant it will continue to be, and may he mature enough to never make this mistake again.

Not to mention its Theo’s first time back at Caps and Im sure HE will play harder. The Caps are playoff choke artists and perhaps as Joe said, Collen, Mr. Bradley is doing them a service uncovering why the Caps fail time and time and time again in the playoffs.

Looking forward to the game. As for Bradley, it is a free country he can say anything he wants. I still laugh at Semin from the time he tried to fight and looked like a kid whacking a bongo drum with both arms flailing.

It’s not huge news that Semin’s all about the $$$. C’mon people…it’s so obvious. Typical Russian player mentality…SHOW ME THE RUBLES. Bradley dead-on to call him out. Caps will never win with guys like that…Ovechkin or no Ovechkin.

Bradley can say whatever he wants too. The fact is, players on teams who struggle constantly at the same things have a lot of emotions pent up.. remember what Horton said after he was traded? Hopefully Ovechkin and Semin focus on the comments and not the game tomorrow night. Bradley needs to do his job and throw them into the boards.

HARVEY FIALKOV, a tennis-playing sportswriter who grew up in Long Island following the dynastic Islanders, is the new Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel and looking forward to writing about the best professional sports team in Broward County.